Alleged Photo Of Hostage Body Printed

October 13, 1985|The New York Times

BEIRUT, LEBANON — A blurred photograph of a body wrapped in a shroud was published Saturday by a Beirut newspaper, and a Moslem fundamentalist group asserted that the corpse was that of William Buckley, one of six Americans believed to be held hostage in Lebanon.

The organization, Islamic Holy War, announced that it is prepared to turn the body over to the United Nations secretary general, Javier Perez de Cuellar, if Israel agrees to free 100 Palestinian prisoners.

The daily, An Nahar, said an envelope containing a message from the group was delivered to its offices at midnight Friday.

Nine days ago, the same group issued a statement and a photograph of Buckley, the political officer at the United States Embassy, stating that it had ``executed`` him in revenge for the deaths of 70 Palestinians and Tunisians killed in an Israeli air raid on Oct. 1 that destroyed the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization near Tunis.

United States officials, including President Reagan, made the point that the claim that Buckley had been killed could not be confirmed from independent sources.

The newspaper printed the statement and the photograph on its front page under its coverage of the capture of four Palestinians who have been accused of hijacking an Italian cruise liner and whose plane was intercepted by American jet fighters and forced to land in Italy.

The message by the Holy War organization made no mention of that episode, but analysts said the statement and photograph were intended as reminders of the plight of the six Americans still missing in Lebanon.

An Nahar said the photograph of the shrouded body was blurred but that it appeared to be that of the ``dead American diplomat.``

Initially, the Holy War group, which is made up of Shiite Moslem activists loyal to the Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, said it was placing Buckley`s remains at the disposal of the families of Palestinians and Tunisians killed in the Israeli air strike. In its new statement, it said it had obtained permission from these families to offer to exchange the body for 100 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

In addition to Buckley, the Americans missing in Lebanon are: Lawrence Martin Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest; Terry A. Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent of The Associated Press; Peter Kilburn, a librarian at the American University in Beirut; Thomas Sutherland, the university`s dean of agriculture, and David Jacobsen, the director of the American University hospital.